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Butterfield Ja18 P O S T HASTE STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSAN DRAGOO Now largely forgotten, the BUTTERFIELD OVERLAND MAIL ROUTE in SOUTHEASTERN Oklahoma is a historic tie to the nation’s westward expansion. For the intrepid traveler, following its trace through the state is a WILD WEST treasure hunt. The Brazil Creek Bridge in LeFlore County is a pony truss span over a scenic spot near what was a nineteenth- century mail station. 80 July/August 2018 OklahomaToday.com 81 HE LAND STILL bears the faded scars of the old route: a swale through a pasture, a cut-down creek bank, a path worn bare Tthrough the forest. In some forgotten places, walled springs still flow near the rubble of rock buildings or graveyards of broken stones. Tey testify to the At the time, long sea journeys were the easiest mode of TRAVEL long-ago passage of the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoaches through from the EAST COAST to the newly populous west, and the nation what would become Oklahoma. It’s been 160 years since the first needed a more efficient way to DELIVER THE MAIL. two bags of mail on the route crossed the Poteau River into Indian Territory. Today, an excursion along Oklahoma’s 192 miles of the Butterfield trail is both time warp and treasure hunt. My husband Bill and I set out to retrace the Indian Territory section of the 1858- 1861 Butterfield route, traveling the back roads of southeastern Oklahoma to discover what remains. Three-cent stamp from 1861, uspcs.org HE ROAD BEGAN in Tipton, Mis- Tsouri, at a terminus of the Pacific Railroad. At the time, long sea journeys were the easiest mode of travel from the East Coast to the newly populous west, and the nation needed a more efficient way to deliver the mail. Enter Utica, New York, native John Butterfield. He was a veteran stagecoach man and a founder of the Railway Express company that eventually became American Express. In 1857, Butterfield secured from the Postmaster General a contract to set The Lime Arch Bridge in Pittsburg County near Hartshorne is a natural rock formation near Brushy Creek. 82 July/August 2018 OklahomaToday.com 83 Our first stop is Walker’s Station at SKULLYVILLE. Here on a quiet country lane once sat the Choctaw Agency, which was established in 1832 to distribute tribal allowances to citizens of the CHOCTAW NATION. up the stage line and, in a year’s time, One of the challenges of finding organized a network of coaches, drivers, the old road today is that virtually all horses, guards, veterinarians, black- of it, except what’s been incorporated smiths, stables, and mules to cover into modern roads, is behind barbed the 2,800-mile mail route. wire fences and locked gates. Luckily, Te first coach left Tipton on the Oklahoma Historical Society September 16, 1858, bound for San placed roadside markers at station Francisco. After crossing Missouri, sites in 1958 to commemorate the Arkansas, and Indian Territory, the trail’s centennial, and most of the route made a long traverse of Texas markers still are intact and accessible. then skirted the Mexico border into California before turning north HE FIRST BUTTERFIELD wagon arrived toward its final destination. Te Tat 2:05 a.m. on September 19, Postmaster General required delivery 1858 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and of the mail within twenty-five days, that’s where we begin our journey. Te a goal Butterfield’s drivers often beat. stagecoach forded the Poteau River and entered Indian Territory about 3:30 a.m. We leave Fort Smith through Ar- koma, crossing the Poteau River bridge and following State Highway 9A. Our first stop is Walker’s Station at Skullyville. Here on a quiet country lane once sat the Choctaw Agency, which was established in 1832 to dis- tribute tribal allowances to citizens of the Choctaw Nation. Te station was at the home of Choctaw Governor Tandy Walker, and his house stood on this hillside until it burned in 1947. Today, JJ RITCHEY the spot would be easy to miss, but on Spring Road, a green sign for Roselawn was overgrown and unkempt, densely is easy to spot from the roadside on The Butterfield Overland Mail Route Ten-cent stamps from Before running the first stage, Cemetery marks a turn-off. Here, a covered with blackberry and hon- Rock Jail Road northwest of Panama. traveled 192 miles through Indian 1861, uspcs.org Butterfield made arrangements with walk north along the street reveals a eysuckle bushes. Now, the cemetery Te county road dead-ends to the Territory. It originated in Missouri and Choctaw and Chickasaw citizens granite marker and a bronze plaque in is managed by the Choctaw Nation southwest, so we detour over Buck ended in San Francisco. living on or near the road to maintain a trace of the stagecoach road. Looking and well groomed, and the graves of Creek Mountain, crossing a steel stands where teams of horses quickly southwest from the marker, the depres- Tandy Walker and other Choctaw truss bridge at Brazil Creek. Brazil Turning west on Latham Road could be changed out. In Indian sion in the earth left by the trail is leaders are shaded by massive oaks. Station was nearby, a stop on local toward Trahern’s Station, we come Territory, there were a dozen official obvious, and water still seeps down the Te stagecoach road continued mail lines, though not an official across the second marker near Te stations about sixteen miles apart, hill from the spring house to the north. southwest of Spiro, passing near Butterfield station. Wright observed Ranch at Latham, an event center beginning with Walker’s Station at Oklahoma historian Muriel Wright, the Skullyville County Jail, the only the station’s old well still in use and and performance venue owned by Skullyville near present-day Spiro. Te who was part of the 1958 entourage remaining artifact of the Skullyville a cemetery plot at the site. With Jonathan and Kelly Watson. Te trail then ran southwest on a diagonal identifying marker sites, mentions in County government of the Choctaw property owner Karen Looper, we centerpiece of the Watsons’ barn is, near Latham, Red Oak, Wilburton, her report the tall trees giving the site Nation. Te present stone jail was find the moss-covered gravestones appropriately, a stagecoach, and they Higgins, Atoka, Boggy Depot, and an aura of dignity and importance. built in 1888, replacing facilities enclosed by a wrought-iron fence, even have a surrey with a fringe on Durant before reaching the site of Te Skullyville cemetery is just west established soon after the Choctaws and Looper leads us to the rubble of top. Not surprisingly, cowboy-themed Colbert’s Ferry at the Red River. of the station. Wright noted that it were removed to Indian Territory. It Brazil School. weddings are their specialty. 84 July/August 2018 OklahomaToday.com 85 Trahern’s also was the location of historical marker sits at the roadside. State Park is located among the Sans within a few feet of the roadway. We We try to maintain our southwesterly Clockwise from left, Dog Creek Ranch in the council house of the Musholatub- Now unoccupied, the structure appears Bois Mountains a short drive north stop at a marker for the Mountain course but encounter a locked gate. Tis Poteau; Walker’s Station near Skullyville; bee district of the Choctaw Nation. sound, though its porch is a bit shaky. of Wilburton on Highway 2, and we Station spring, which still flows. Be- presents an opportunity to venture off Oklahomans celebrating the Butterfield A large mound south of the histori- Two fine stone chimneys still are intact. enjoy a night in one of the cliff-side yond the spring, we catch a glimpse the trail to visit Lime Arch Bridge, one centennial in 1958 cal marker is reportedly the grave of I walk to the cemetery to gaze north cabins before hitting the trail again the of a rocky trace of the trail on the of Oklahoma’s few natural stone arches. Chief Musholatubbee; legend has it toward the wooded Brazil Creek valley next morning. hillside. To find it, we head southwest out of the mound is so large because he was and the hills beyond. But the trail is becoming harder Hartshorne, eventually turning west buried with his horse. We drive on to Red Oak, stop- ROM LUTIE, THE old trail parallels U.S. to find. An obscure section line road on Arch Road. Soon, we spy a small Beyond the Walls community on ping briefly at the Holloway’s Station FHighway 270 for about six miles over a low water bridge at Buffalo pull-out and a gate clearly intended Norris Road, we find a real treasure marker, then to the Lutie Cemetery then turns south, ascending to Moun- Creek takes us to Pusley’s Station, to provide access for foot traffic and hidden on a hilltop: the only surviv- east of Wilburton. Te Riddle’s Station tain Station. Now only a cemetery, where only the base of the historical bearing the handwritten words, “Keep ing original building along the But- marker is located near the cemetery, Mountain Station was not an official marker remains. It is right in the trace gate closed.” A short walk takes us to terfield route in Oklahoma. Edwards and the stone-rimmed Riddle burial Butterfield stop, but it boasted a post of the stagecoach road, which leads a huge limestone formation. Tere, Store, a hewn-log structure, was built plot abides near a towering oak. office and probably owes its existence toward the creek.
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